Sometimes I read blog posts that compel me to say something, or write, and a recent blog post by Ann Tran did just that. If you haven’t read. “Five Ways to Find Out If Your Instagram is Boring”, you should. And if you’re on Instagram it will make you think about your feed and what you share. Whether you agree with it or not is up to you, but it is very good food for thought.
I remember when I first started with social media that I shared everything and anything to every single network that I was on. If it was of any remote interest to me, I shared it. I was sort of the same way with photography. If I took a photo, any photo, I shared it. Now I won’t go and tell you how you should post on your social accounts or what photos are good enough for you to share, there are plenty of other people out there that are more than happy to do that. But what I will share with you is what happened when I started to focus my sharing more. And I feel those results are positive.
My first hesitancy to focus my sharing was that I wanted everyone everywhere to read what I found and know that I found it. And honestly when I first started out, it worked for what I wanted, it increased my follower count on social media. But as time went on, I started to notice problems.
Let me first preface this by saying that I don’t have a ton of followers. In fact compared to a lot of people, my social media following is rather small. But even with my meager social following, having a conversation with everyone about everything under the sun was very difficult. And to top it off, I wasn’t becoming an authority on any one subject.
Like I mentioned earlier, my photography was the same way. But when I started to be more selective of the photos I posted, they started to become more popular. I believe this happened for two reasons. One, being selective of what photos to share eliminated the bad and marginally good photos, and really made me think about the shots I took before I took them. Each photo became meaningful and intentional. Two, being selective meant that I didn’t share as much which meant that I wasn’t constantly filling my followers feeds with uselessness. I subscribed to the “quality over quantity” theory and it worked. Overall what I’ve chosen to share (whether it be photos or other things) have been more well received than in the past.
I still have a long way to go. I’ve really just started trying to separate what I share per network, and I’ve only been pretty good at it with Instagram. But I’m working on doing the same with all my other networks too. In the end, I’m thinking I’d rather be extremely good or great at one thing, than just ok at lots of things. How about you?
The Jason Eng Blog 
Great post Jason, I really enjoyed it. I go back and forth on this all the time. I feel like I’m much better at some things than I am others. That makes me feel like I need to change focus, then when I do, I feel like I’m lacking in other areas. It’s a constant struggle.
Thanks for the comment Jason, and for sharing my post, I really appreciate it. I’m also glad that you found it useful! I can see where you’re coming from too. It’s really hard though to be all things to everyone, everywhere.
Such important points Jason & especially about being really good at one thing or even 2 rather spreading ourselves thin! 🙂
Thanks Jody! It’s all about standing out with expertise. Like how you are with fitness =)
Hey Jason! Awesome post about two very interesting topics. There is a lot of stuff I absolutely agree with. Especially sharing the “kitchen sink” and everything else just to post and keep some scores up is nonsense. I am happy more and more people feel that way and actually say so. The thing I don’t necessarily agree with is the thing with focusing on one thing and be good with it. While that might be good advice for many people that haven’t done a lot in their careers, for many others, including me, it is rather frustrating. In my opinion, sadly, the stand “you can only be really good (I try to avoid the word “expert”) in one thing” seems to be the rule for a lot of people and organizations. I challenge that advice and recommend to connect the dots between everything one has done throughout a career. Working in five different industries and roles doesn’t make one “unfocused”, it gives the opportunity to connect dots between the different experiences and create a wider horizon that will help to do better in the next job. Plus, it improves the skill to adjust to change and new stuff in general. Looking at you, you are really good in at least three totally different areas (and I am sure if we have more conversations I will find three more) and you should not hide that fact and your various experiences. Your voice and opinion has considerable weight, at least for me, and you are a resource for me and others in different areas. Let us all know about your favorite thing to do, but don’t leave the other things you know just as much about untouched. Sorry for the ramble! 🙂
Hi Vitus, thanks for taking the time to comment here, your opinion is always welcome! I agree with your view that people can be good at multiple things, you’re right, we are all involved in different industries. It is very possible that some people are a lot better at doing that than others, the proof is in the results. So I agree, you could be focused in five different areas. But I would advise that from time to time people take a step back and really evaluate how they really are doing in each area. I would be very interested in hearing how you are able to stay focused, your advice and insight would be very valuable =)
Hi Jason. Sorry, took me a while to get the response going. You know, after thinking about this, I believe that actually everyone can be good in multiple things/topics/jobs. What many people forget when they look at all their interests, is to connect the dots between all the interests. In a job search one would refer to “transferrable skills”. Many skills are good for multiple jobs in totally different industries. In the past it was “normal” to stay in one job at one company for the entire career. Those times are over! Things change too fast these days and one needs options.
Being able to focus is a matter of interest for me. The more I like the different things I do, the better I can focus on them. So, one rule is important for me: Only do what you like to do and what you can do. When I was young, I thought I can do everything. I couldn’t. With falling on my face a couple of times I learned the lesson. If you can, only do what you want to do and what you can do. No need to know everything. No one does.
During the last 35 years I have worked in 5 different industries and in many more different roles. If you are around for that long you can quickly switch from one thing to the other. There is no problem with finding focus. One interesting experience I made: When I was around for 10 years, I wasn’t that good with focusing. Too much thinking and fuzzing before real focus came in. With experience comes the focus, because the thinking has been done already and the fuzz is no longer needed.